


Let's Hear It For the Boy: A WCPL Side Story

by AGirlNamedEd



Series: West City Public Library [5]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: Alternate Universe - Library, M/M, uhhhhh mostly takes place in a cafe though
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-07-17
Packaged: 2018-12-03 04:12:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,388
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11524308
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AGirlNamedEd/pseuds/AGirlNamedEd
Summary: Scenes from Broly's life, mostly involving Raditz, in West City Public Library, as requested on Tumblr.





	1. Chocolate Raspberry

**Author's Note:**

> There have been a few times where I've had prompt requests open on Tumblr and someone's suggested Broly stuff in this AU. Mostly Broly/Raditz. Because why not.
> 
> Requested by raxceni: "“Are you implying that you want to kiss me?” Raditz x whomever you feel like pairing him with! >u<"

“Oh, hey, Rad, you’re here!”

Raditz sauntered to the Ox Cafe’s counter. “Sure am, kid.”

Maza beamed at him. “I’ll get your coffee in a sec, but wait here, okay? Broly wanted to ask you something!” Before Raditz could answer, she’d disappeared into the back.

He scratched the back of his head. Ever since he and Broly had met, there’d been a strange air about him, something a little unsettling. And every time Raditz had come back to the cafe after that, Broly was always at the edge of his vision. He hardly ever directly interacted with Raditz, though he always looked like he wanted to.

Well, as long as Broly held up his end of the deal and didn’t start freaking out about Kakarott, Raditz would hold up his end and not tell Chi-Chi about it.

Maybe that was what Broly wanted to talk to him about…

“Um, hi.”

Raditz blinked. Broly was on the other side of the counter now, as impassive and tired-looking as always. His unruly hair stuck out from under his hair net at odd angles and made him look a bit like a sleepy pufferfish. It was sort of cute. “What’s up?” he asked. “Maza said you wanted to talk.”

“Yeah, um.” Broly shifted his weight. “I wanted to ask you a favour.”

“What kind of favour?” Raditz narrowed his eyes, glaring at Broly suspiciously.

“I made something, and I, uh, I didn’t want to have Maza taste it because she’ll eat anything–she ate cat treats one time, I watched her, it was weird–and I wondered if you’d taste it before I showed it to Miss Chi-Chi.” Broly held out a chocolate cupcake with rather sad-looking pink decorations. “I know it’s not much to look at right now,” he added hastily when Raditz wrinkled his nose. “But I didn’t expect you to be here, so I just did the decorations quickly. It tastes way better than it looks, I promise!”

“Alright, fine, hand it over.” Raditz held out his hand for it. At worst, he’d get a shitty cupcake for free. At best, he’d get a _great_ cupcake for free. And Raditz had never been one to turn down free food.

The smile Broly gave him was small, but hopeful, and Raditz focused on peeling off the cupcake’s wrapper instead. “What kind of cupcake is this, anyway?” he asked.

“I’d rather you figure that out for yourself.” Broly clasped his hands behind his back and waited. “Oh, unless you have any allergies.”

“I don’t.” Raditz shoved half of it in his mouth in one go, chewing thoughtfully. Broly was right, it _did_ taste a lot better than it looked. And there was some kind of fruit in it. “Is that a raspberry?” he asked, crumbs spraying the counter.

“Yes!” Broly’s eyes brightened. “It’s a chocolate raspberry cupcake. I added raspberry juice to the cupcake batter and put a raspberry in the bottom, and then the icing is raspberry flavoured! What do you think?”

“It’s good.” Raditz swallowed. “Real moist and shit.” God, he didn’t know anything about cupcakes. “I’d definitely work on the presentation before you show it to Chi-Chi, though.” He stuffed the rest in his mouth. _Fuck_ that was a good cupcake. Broly was a weirdo, but he could bake, Raditz would give him that.

“I will.” Broly started brushing off the counter. “Thank you for testing it for me. I wasn’t sure who else to ask.”

“Hey, no problem.” Raditz swallowed and started licking the leftover icing from his fingers. “Any time you need someone to test out your baking, I’m your guy.” Hell, Broly might not be so bad after all.

“You’ve got something on your…” Broly trailed off, pointing at Raditz’s face. Raditz wiped his mouth, but Broly shook his head. “No, there. On your– _there_.” He reached out and brushed Raditz’s lower lip with a thumb. Raditz jerked away at the unexpected contact, but Broly had just wanted to help, and he forced himself to calm down. “Your lips are really soft,” Broly commented quietly.

Raditz shrugged. “Lots of lip chap in the winter’ll do that.” He grinned. “What, you wanna kiss them?”

He’d expected Broly to laugh it off, or blush and stammer and run away. He didn’t expect Broly to look him in the eyes and say “Yeah, if you’re offering.”

Raditz actually _felt_ his whole face turn scarlet. His eyes widened and he took a step back. “Uh.”

“Just kidding.” Broly hooked his thumbs in his apron straps and smiled. Raditz’s heart hammered in his chest. “Hey, shouldn’t you be going back to work soon?”

“I–c-coffee,” Raditz stammered. That was why he’d originally come all the way here, right?”

“Oh, right. Here.” Broly went to the coffee machine and very methodically poured Raditz a large cup of black coffee. “On the house, for helping me out.”

Normally, Raditz would make some crack about having to climb to the roof to drink “on the house” coffee, but he just snatched it and stammered “okay sure thank you goodbye” before bolting.

What the _hell_ had just happened?


	2. Braids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by nyazuline: "hey yeah can i get uhhhhhh wcpl brorad where.. raditz comes into the cafe during his lunch break and hes got his hair in a ponytail or braid or something and broly thinks it looks Very Good (IF U WANT TO.... )) also congrats on 100+ follows ;0"

Broly carefully placed the cupcakes, one by one, into the display case. He’d been at the cafe since early that morning, getting the day’s baked goods ready to go. There was definitely something off about today, though, because the cafe was opening in two and a half minutes and he was only just now ready.

“You okay today, Bro?” Maza asked. She was sitting on the counter, bubblegum pink hair piled messily on her head as she stared intently at Broly and sucked down a smoothie. “It’s not like you to not have everything ready, like, half an hour before opening.”

Broly shrugged and stood up straight. “I’m fine. I think I’m just tired today.”

“Maza, get off the counter.” Chi-Chi walked in from the apartment upstairs, tying her apron around her waist. She eyed Broly appraisingly. “Is this going to be a back room day?” she asked.

“No.” Broly looked down at the floor. It wasn’t anything like that, he was sure. He just hadn’t slept well the night before, that was all. And seeing Chi-Chi’s husband returning from his morning run when Broly arrived at the cafe was probably not helping his nerves at all. His father had said seeing Kak– _Goku_ –all the time would be good for him, but it always seemed to set him off in some minor way. He really hoped today would be fairly minor. Broly couldn’t deal with another meltdown so soon after his last one at his library job interview.

“Alright then, I trust you.” Chi-Chi scurried over to unlock the front door. “But if you need to disappear into the back for a bit, go right ahead.”

“Thank you,” he mumbled. Maza gave him a thumb’s up and scooted off to check the coffee again. Broly did his best to smile. He was lucky to work with two people who supported him as much as Chi-Chi and Maza did. Maybe he’d stay in the back when Goku left to take Gohan to the library, but other than that he was determined to have a good day.

Less than a minute after Chi-Chi opened the door, someone came rushing through it. “I need an extra large,” Raditz panted when he got to the counter. Broly blinked. Raditz looked like he’d just run all the way to the cafe from his apartment. He leaned against the counter, chest heaving, as Maza poured coffee into the biggest paper cup they had and slid it towards Raditz. Raditz knocked half of it back and slammed some change on the counter. “Shit,” he muttered. “Thanks. Can I have another one of these and about three danishes?”

“Sure thing.” Maza pushed Broly forward. “Here’s your extra large.”

Broly flushed. “I-I–” He cut himself off by swallowing when Raditz looked him up and down. Wait, was he–

“Well, I guess Broly is kind of a tall drink of water.” Raditz winked and Broly felt like his head was going to explode. “But I was more looking for coffee.”

Broly backed up a step, still red in the face. Maza slid in front of him and handed Raditz another coffee. “You’re early today, Rad!” she said, punching some numbers into the register. “Usually you don’t get here until five to!”

“Got an extra commitment today.” Raditz fished out some more change and a hair tie. “Except then I overslept and missed the early bus, so I had to run here or I’d be late.” He stuck the hair tie in his mouth and started braiding his hair. Broly’s eyes were glued to Raditz’s hands, to the quick, expert way they moved, tossing pieces of hair over each other until he reached the end and wrapped the tie around it. Raditz flipped the braid over his shoulder and Broly clutched his apron. It was a good look for Raditz. “Meant to do that earlier,” Raditz explained, picking up his first coffee again.

“Hey, Broly, tell Raditz what kind of danishes we’ve got today, okay?” Maza clapped Broly on the back. “I’ve gotta pee.” She disappeared into the back.

“I didn’t need to know that,” Broly mumbled. To his surprise, Raditz laughed. Had that been funny? But oh, wow, Raditz’s laugh was nice. Loud and boisterous and it didn’t fit in the early morning atmosphere of the tiny cafe, but like with Raditz’s braid it seemed to fit Raditz perfectly. Broly looked down again and started pointing out the different danishes he’d just finished baking ten minutes ago.

Raditz ended up with two cherry cheese danishes, a chocolate pastry, and a chocolate chip cookie. Broly added up his total and got Raditz’s change, still not meeting his eyes. He was too embarrassed. Raditz was very handsome, in his own strange rugged way, and for him to have called Broly a “tall drink of water” was a little more than Broly could handle.

“Hey, wake up there.” Raditz was waving a hand in Broly’s face. “You alright? You’re all red. Should you be at work?”

“I’m fine, thank you.” Broly handed Raditz his pastries.

Raditz leaned forward with a grin. “What, all flustered by my devilish good looks?”

Broly backed up a step. He was, but he couldn’t say that. That would be weird. “I’m–”

Thankfully, another voice interrupted him before he could figure out what he was trying to say. “Uncle Raditz!” Gohan latched onto Raditz’s legs in a hug before clambering up his torso to cling to his neck. Raditz shifted his grip to support his nephew and laughed. Broly blinked. Oh. Raditz had come early to take Gohan to the library. That was all. A little part of Broly was disappointed that Raditz hadn’t come to see him, but, well. Of course he hadn’t. His family ran the cafe. Of course Raditz would come to see them.

Maza reappeared at Broly’s elbow and he quickly excused himself into the back room. She and Chi-Chi really needed to stop leaving Broly alone with Raditz before he did something stupid.


	3. Off Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by lilyrosethedreamer: "DID SOMEBODY SAY LIBRARY AU??? Maybe a Broly centric piece, please?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not really sure what kind of warnings to put on this but it's...not pleasant. Broly suffers in this.

Broly scrubbed intently at the top of one of the tables. Whoever had been at it last had somehow managed to get something gross and sticky all over half of it, and then left it for nearly an hour while they used the cafe’s WiFi. He had a bucket of soapy water next to his foot and a once-clean cloth in his hand and a thousand curse words in his head.

It was one of his off days, and he knew that, and he was doing his best to work around it. Chi-Chi was always very understanding of his off days, letting him avoid interactions with people as much as possible. He was grateful to her for that. Other jobs he’d held before hadn’t been so accommodating. But even though he knew it was an off day, he knew little things were going to get to him even harder, he still struggled to remind himself that every little thing that happened wasn’t a personal slight. Seeing Goku that morning on his way to the dojo hadn’t helped, either. He still wasn’t sure what it was about Chi-Chi’s husband, but he always seemed to set Broly’s teeth on edge.

“Thanks for getting that.” Maza popped up next to him, her smile a little more nervous than usual. He knew he was practically radiating negative energy, but he couldn’t do much about it. He shrugged sullenly at her. “No, seriously, thanks,” she said. She started to pat him on the shoulder, then paused and stepped away again. “I can handle the rest. When you’re done that table, you can go on break if you need to! I’ll let Cheech know.”

He hated this. He hated how everyone walked on eggshells around him, how they treated him like he was a bomb made of spun glass. Maza never acted like this around him. She’d give him a friendly pat on the arm, a giant grin, a chirpy thanks, maybe a passive-aggressive comment or two about rude customers. Not this…this _uncomfortableness_. Something in him twisted and he squeezed the rag tighter.

“Bro?” Maza’s voice sounded far away. “You okay?”

Broly threw the rag down and stormed into the back room. His brain felt like it was going haywire, his vision fuzzy and his heart rate skyrocketing. He wanted to scream, to punch the tiled floor until his hands were broken and bleeding, to just start running and maybe never come back. Everything hurt, everything was _wrong_ , and he knew it was his garbage brain being garbage but in that moment it didn’t matter, it was the worst he’d ever felt.

He grabbed for the necklace he kept hidden under his shirt, the one his father had given him to help with times like this. The small chunk of crystal was dwarfed by his huge, sweaty hand, but he clutched it like a lifeline and squeezed his eyes shut. He dug his other hand into his hair and pulled, hoping to ground himself with pain. His breath came in short gasps, and if he didn’t pull himself under control soon he’d be hyperventilating.

Broly leaned back against the wall. The bumps and edges of his crystal dug into his palm. He wanted to go home. He wanted his father. He didn’t want to stay here anymore. If he did he’d be sick. His crystal wasn’t working and he was going to lose his mind.

Cool hands wrapped around his hand that held the crystal. Broly flinched back and the hands followed. Someone was talking quietly, a soft murmur of comfort. It was Chi-Chi. Her words were distant, but comforting, and they gave him something to focus on besides his wild heartbeat. One of her hands came up to disentangle his hand from his hair and he let her.

Without thinking, he threw his arms around her and buried his face in the top of her head, a sob wracking his body. Her hands patted his back and she kept talking, quiet reassurances and soft comfort. When he stopped shaking, she patted his arm. “Do you want to go back to your shift?” she asked. He nodded. The worst of it was over. He’d be in a bad mood for the rest of the day, but he’d be alright. “Okay. Let me know if you change your mind. Can I move back now?”

Nodding, Broly released her and stepped back. Chi-Chi smiled up at him. “Feeling better?”

He hesitated, then decided to be honest. “No,” he said. “But well enough.”

She didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure you don’t need to go home?”

“Yes.” He wiped his face. Now that the moment was over, he was embarrassed by the whole thing. He’d basically cried all over his boss over nothing. His father would call him weak if he ever found out. “Please don’t tell my father.”

Chi-Chi blinked. “I…wasn’t going to.” She squeezed his hand and stepped back again. “I’m going out front. You can stay back here and work on decorating cookies, if you like.” Broly perked up. Icing the cookies was always a calming activity for him. “Let me know if you need me again, okay?”

He nodded. “I’m–thank you. Don’t tell Father.”

“I won’t.” She gave him one last smile before turning and moving towards the door. “Tell me if you need to go home.”

Broly nodded. He wouldn’t. If he went home too early, his father would know something had happened and get angry. No, he wouldn’t tell him about his little slip-up today. The only ones who knew were Chi-Chi and Maza, and it could stay that way forever.


	4. Smile

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Requested by nyazuline: "if ur still doing wcpl au prompts, YOU KNOW IM ALWAYS UP FOR BRORAD... how about.. an over-the-counter kiss when no one else is in the store? (whether they get to smooch or get interrupted is up to you)"

Broly was just finishing readjusting the cupcake display when the cafe’s door opened. “Hey,” Raditz drawled, letting the door swing closed behind him. He looked around the empty cafe. “Where’s everyone at?”

Broly shrugged uncomfortably. “Thursdays are quiet. Chi-Chi’s gone to the store, if you need her for something.”

Raditz sauntered towards the counter, keeping a watchful eye on Broly. Broly sighed. Raditz still didn’t totally trust him. After what he’d done at the library, he didn’t completely blame him, but he just couldn’t tell Raditz that he couldn’t control his outbursts. If he knew they were involuntary he’d probably be even more adamant about getting him fired. “What about Maza?” Raditz asked.

“Sick.” Broly shrugged. Maza hardly ever called in sick, but apparently she’d sounded like death over the phone, so he could hardly blame her, even if it left just two of them to run the place. At least it wasn’t one of Broly’s bad days.

“So you’re in charge, huh?” Raditz leaned on the counter and grinned at Broly. “Lucky you.”

There was something about Raditz’s grin that was almost infectious, that made Broly want to smile back. He scratched the side of his nose and looked down at the countertop, trying to hide his smile. His father always said his smile made him look like a serial killer. “I guess so.”

“Well, Boss-man, could I get a cup of coffee?”

“Sure.” Broly backed up and went to the coffeepot. “I just put on a fresh one a few minutes ago, right before everyone cleared out.”

“Beautiful.” Raditz shoved his payment at Broly, eagerly holding his hands out for the paper cup. “This shit is the only thing that keeps me going through the afternoon.”

Broly ducked his head and smiled, shaking his head. “I’m more of a tea person.”

“Really? You struck me as a coffee guy.” Raditz took a gulp of his coffee and sighed contentedly. Broly peeked up. Something about the look of contentment on Raditz’s face made him blush and hide his face again. He was so gorgeous. “Hey, are you okay?” Raditz’s hand waved in Broly’s line of sight, and he looked up to see Raditz leaning across the counter towards him, brows furrowed in confusion.

“Fine,” Broly managed. Raditz was very close now. Against his better judgement, he tried a smile.

Raditz’s lips parted. “Oh. Hey, uh, that’s…that’s a good look for you.” He smiled back. “The smile, I mean. Your smile. It’s, uh. It’s good.”

Broly’s heart pounded. His smile? Raditz thought he had a good smile? “You too,” he said. He licked his lips. His mouth was dry. “Your smile’s good too.”

He was rewarded with one. “Couple a smiley guys, that’s what we are.” Raditz chuckled at his own terrible joke, and Broly tried to swallow but couldn’t. He and Raditz were so close all of a sudden, and Raditz’s breath smelled like coffee, and if Broly wanted to he could lean forward and kiss him, and he _did_ want to, and–

A door slammed open and they sprang back, Broly nearly tripping into the wall as they did. “I’m back!” Chi-Chi yelled.

“G-gotta go,” Raditz stammered. He flashed Broly another award-winning smile and turned, scarpering for the door. By the time Chi-Chi made it out to the cafe’s main room, he was gone, Broly staring stupidly after him.

“Anything interesting happen while I was out?” Chi-Chi asked, checking the coffeepot.

Broly fidgeted with his apron and continued staring, watching Raditz hurry away through one of the windows. “I’m not sure.”


End file.
